Elinor+Cassidy

On March 15, 1915, 22-year-old homemaker Elenora Cassidy died at Cook County Hospital after being treated for two days for septicemia. Before her death, Elinor named Dr. Julia Patera as the guilty abortionist, and indicated that the abortion had been done at Patara's house on March 6.

Patara was indicted for Elinor's death on March 15 by a Grand Jury, but the case never went to trial, even though the very next day another woman, @Hazel Wilcox, died after an abortion attributed to Patera.

Note, please, that with overall public health issues such as doctors not using proper aseptic techniques, lack of access to blood transfusions and antibiotics, and overall poor health to begin with, there was likely little difference between the performance of a legal abortion and illegal practice, and the aftercare for either type of abortion was probably equally unlikely to do the woman much, if any, good. For more information about early 20th Century abortion mortality, see __[|Abortion Deaths 1910-1919] __.



For more on pre-legalization abortion, see __[|The Bad Old Days of Abortion] __

Sources:
 * Homicide in Chicago Interactive Database
 * The Day Book, Chicago, Mar. 18, 1915
 * Death certificate
 * "Just Five Month's Abortion Toll," //Chicago Daily Tribune//, May 29, 1915





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